It was recently reported that a skyscraper in London, England has been known to melt cars. When parked close enough to the building, certain people have reported parts of their cars melting due to the heat being reflected off of the mirror-like surface. It is certainly an odd type of occurrence and one that many people might not even be likely to believe unless they were to see it for themselves. Maybe with this interesting information and knowing how much the sun is reflecting off of this building, the architect’s could use it to their advantage and produce energy with it somehow.
The architect behind the project of building the skyscraper, is Rafael Vinoly, born in Uruguay. It is being developed by Canary Wharf and Land Securities in the city’s insurance district. It is unclear why, but it has been said that this is a temporary problem and it was expected to happen for a certain part of the year. According to The Huffington Post, the shape acts as a lens that reflects intense beams of sunlight for roughly two hours during the day during about two to three weeks out of the year. Developers are currently looking for permanent solutions, although it seems that a simple “no parking” sign would work well enough for now. The official plan is for the companies to build a temporary scaffold screen at street level in order to minimize the problem.
The building is very large and with curved exterior walls, it is the same type of model that is used in the design for some solar power plants. It is 38 stories tall and is known locally as the “Walkie Talkie.”
Martin Lindsay, the owner of a jaguar, has become a victim to the monstrous building, after melting his car on Thursday afternoon. After leaving his car for only about two hours, he returned to find parts of his car, including the wing mirror and badge to be completely melted. In a statement to BBC News, he freaked out by saying “You can’t believe something like this would happen.” He then went on to say that there needs to be something done about this. He has been repaid for the damages caused to his vehicle, although hopefully no more incidents like this one will happen after attention is brought to the issue. While it is very odd and questionable that something like this could happen, developers have made a statement saying that they will work to find a solution as soon as possible and prevent the same thing from happening to more people.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
